


from death to destruction (and all the in-between)

by annasotropy



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Adventure, Akkala Tower is the 2nd character in the same way NYC is the 5th, and pain, nothing more than a dramatic retelling of my own adventure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:27:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25758823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/annasotropy/pseuds/annasotropy
Summary: Akkala Tower was far too orange. (Link hated the color orange.)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 13





	from death to destruction (and all the in-between)

**Author's Note:**

> This is a shitpost fic, don't worry too much about it. :D

Link sighed, squinting at the image on his Sheikah slate. That glowing pillar in the distance had to be Akkala Tower. The blank grid of the map had been burning holes in his memory when he slept— _if_ he slept. He’d snaked his way around the world, avoiding Akkala when he left Zora’s Domain in search of shock arrows. Now, it stuck out like a sore thumb in what felt like a sea of blue shrines, completed puzzles, flames carried, and monsters slain.

He put the slate back on his hip and looked around again, taking in the enormity of Hyrule. He sat, carefully dangling his armored legs off the side of his perch. Death Mountain had its perks, but the need for adequate fireproofing was not one of them. He took off the Flamebreaker helm, rustling his hair a bit as he breathed in the scorching air. Back it went into his inventory, safely stashed for later. Goddess, he needed to sort his belongings.

There was no need to keep his Fireproof Lizards anymore. He’d miss them dearly, but there was no need for them to come with him all the way to Akkala when they could live a happy life in their own home. Link smiled softly as he watched them scurry away back towards the volcano like moths to a welcoming flame. And there he sat again, with nothing but the incessant voice of a princess boring holes in his patchy memory, looking out on the abandoned kingdom he was forced to defend when nobody else seemed brave or strong or stupid enough.

If there was one thing Link was, it was stupid, but at least he always had a plan. He’d travel back to Shah Dahaj Shrine and try his best to sneak up on the citadel ruins from behind, he decided; the place would be teeming with Malice and monsters and there was no way he could take an army of Guardian scouts from the ground. His bows were damaged from his squabble with Fireblight Ganon, his arrow supply was sparse (and Beedle never seemed to refresh his stock), and he hadn’t even been back to Hateno Ancient Tech Lab to upgrade his Bomb runes yet.

Link stood up, brushing hot pebbles from his boots. There was so much to do.

A few taps on the Sheikah Slate later and he was back in the space between, his essence speeding across spacetime as he felt himself fall back into existence in Eldin Canyon. Shah Dahaj Shrine was just as he remembered it: blue. It was a calming light, signaling one step closer to peace in Hyrule, but urgent nonetheless. He stopped only to breathe—he had to check that everything was still in the right place, after all—and change back into his Champion’s Tunic and Climbing Bandana. Blue.

And yet there was Akkala Tower, piercing the horizon, turning it ugly and rotten-colored.

Link hated orange.

Climbing the steep cliff faces was just the distraction he needed. He liked the rhythm he’d developed over the past several weeks and was proud whenever he found he could climb a little faster or maneuver more accurately. Every so often he would jump, just to test his endurance, and almost as often he’d have to scramble to find some tiny flat shelf to catch his breath on. When he made it to the crest of the hill, he stopped to evaluate his path. The road was just below, and he could see it snaking around the back of the Citadel, completely avoiding the destroyed bridge. Perfect—maybe he could find a blind spot on some parapet and get to the tower without meeting any Guardian resistance at all.

But first, a detour: the shrine below. With a running jump, Link lept from the cliffside, gliding enough to position himself just so and freefalling right above the entrance to the shrine. He slowed down his descent just enough with a perfectly timed paraglide and tapped his Sheikah slate to the pedestal.

_Sheikah Slate Authenticated._

Link glanced at his slate before putting it back in his holster. Ze Kasho Shrine, huh? He walked onto the platform, bracing for descent, praying to the Goddess Hylia with all of his being that this wouldn’t be a Major Test of Strength. He watched as the body of the shrine was revealed to him. Ah, an apparatus? Link chuckled lightly. This was going to be even easier than he expected.

…that chest probably just had amber in it, anyways.

Link was feeling more confident than ever with his newly conquered travel gate and a Spirit Orb lying wait in his stash. He sprinted down the road, making his way to the west side of the Citadel. Even from below, it looked a mess. Splotches of pink and black clumsily painted the walls, and the Guardians’ fields of vision kept moving across the border. The tower looked to be choked by Malice, orange glow struggling to stay alive.

Just then, it decided to rain, so Link decided to do a bit of exploration and reconnaissance. This plan was definitely his best bet—the Guardian scouts were scattered throughout the area, but it looked like the walls were a blind spot. If he could rest on the seams in the Citadel wall’s construction, he could safely make it past them, leaving only any monsters that might have found their way up between him and a complete map.

Once the impromptu shower was over, Link climbed the walls of the citadel, launching himself onto a peaceful platform lined with rusted cannons and surprisingly small trees for their assumed age. It was almost peaceful, like a happy exhale from the Hylians who had died protecting the place they loved. From the parapet Link could see crumbled buildings and walls, but the rubble formed paths he could use to safely navigate through the Malice. From his vantage point, it seemed that only Bokoblins stood in his way. Excellent—he could easily take down a few of those monsters.

At least, he thought he could, until he realized that every last one of them was silver, and the Guardian could see him even as it was buried in its hundred years of decay, and that his true reward for trying to climb the tower without conflict was an ice arrow to the back and a lungful (or three) of Malice.

 _No avoiding a fight,_ he thought, quickly grabbing some Fried Wild Greens and his Spiked Boko Club. Goddess, was that really all he had? He glanced at the sky, heart sinking when the sound of thunder rolled through the broken windows of the Citadel. Everything else in his inventory was metal. _Fine. Golden Bow and Boko Club it is._

Link made quick work of the first Bokoblin, cornering it and attacking with passion. Its eyes did glow red, after all, and red was close enough to orange, and orange meant he wasn’t strong enough to save his people yet. The Guardian wasn’t worth his time—he could just climb the other side of the tower. And yet, every time he cycled around the tower’s base, searching for an eye that would clear a path just enough to get you through, that damned Bokoblin seemed to regenerate. His club broke, then the bow he’d stolen from the monster, then the mop he must have been carrying since his last night in Hateno. There had to be another way.

Crouching, Link looked for a way to jump over the pink sludge. All of a sudden, he felt a self-assured breeze form beneath him, quickly growing into what could only be described as…

_A gale?_

Revali! What a beautiful, arrogant mastermind he was indeed! Link landed on one of the tower’s platforms and surveyed the situation again. The Guardian, stuck on the other side of the tower, appeared to give up on its quest for your demise. The Bokoblin, it seemed, lost interest as soon as you left the ground, preferring to let you live in favor of destroying another ancient library table or whatever it was that the monsters did in their free time.

Link smiled, quickly making his way up the rest of the tower. Perhaps it was fate that had lead him to Kass, or that had urged him to conquer Vah Medoh with no preparation whatsoever. Maybe it was the Sheikah Slate and its infuriatingly inflexible zoom option, leading him to Rito Village one step at a time.

It could have even been Zelda.

But here, in the quiet, there was no medium for fate or friendship. Though Akkala was a beautiful sight to behold, Link couldn’t help but down at the ruins, overrun by monsters and the so-called Guardians, and wonder what he had forgotten about this place. Though, if he had remembered, he doubted he would be able to use Revali’s Gale.

The thought made Link chuckle as he moved towards the pedestal. Revali had been correct, all those years ago: flying was a delight as pure as life itself, and the freedom to move whenever and however one wished was a blessing and a joy.

He couldn’t wait to do it again.

Without any more delay, Link took the Sheikah Slate off his hip and placed it in its holder.

_Sheikah Slate authenticated. Distilling local information...._

**Author's Note:**

> I cannot stress how much this is a shitpost fic and that's a wonderful thing. I've really struggled to write as my mental health has declined over the years so this was really fun! I'd be happy to do more overdramatic retellings of my gameplay in the future.
> 
> ... and when I logged in this morning, I realized I haven't even made it to Hebra yet, so this whole fic is a lie. Oops!
> 
> To anyone struggling with anxiety, here is advice from my therapist to me to you: every day, do one tiny thing that scares you. It's a mindset that has changed my life!
> 
> Much love,  
> Anna :* :)


End file.
